Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (February 4th, 1871 - February 28th, 1925) was the President of the Weimar Republic from 1919 until his death in 1925. His political party was the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Early Life Born on February 4, 1871 in Heidelberg, Friedrich Ebert was the son of Karl and Katharina Ebert. He wanted to attend university, but his parents couldn't afford it. He was instead trained to be a saddle-maker from 1885 to 1888. he was introduced by his uncle to the SPD, and became a member in 1889. He studied the writings of Karl Marx, but was not as interested in the ideology as he was in the practical and organisational side of the issues which could be fixed to improve workers' lives. Ebert was on the "black list" of the police due to his political activities, so he kept changing address. In May 1894, he married his girlfriend, Louise Rump (1873-1955), a maid who was active in union work. He then rented a pub which became the center of socialist political actions. In 1900, he became a trade-union secretary and elected someone as the leader of the SPD. Meanwhile, Ebert had ran for a Reichstag seat several times in constituencies where the SPD had no chance of winning. However, in 1912, he was elected a seat for the constituency of Elberfeld-Barmen (today part of Wuppertal). This was the election which also made the SPD the strongest party in the Reichstag with 110 out of 397 members. After the death of August Bebel in 1913, he was elected joint party chairman with 433 out of 473 votes. His co-chairman was Hugo Haase. World War I When World War I broke out, Ebert was on vacation. He travelled to Zurich with party treasurer, Otto Braun, and the party's money. He planned to set up a foreign organisation if the SPD should be outlawed in the Empire. On August 6, he almost unanimously got the SPD members to vote in Reichstag in favour of war bonds, accepting that the war was a necessary patriotic, defensive measure. In January 1916, Haase resigned. The party's stance and participation in Burgfrieden, under the leadership of Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann, in favour of the war and with the aim of a compromise peace, eventually led to a split, with those radically opposed to the war leaving the SPD in early 1917 to form the Independent Social Democratic party of Germany (USPD). Later, members kicked out by Ebert went on to form the "Spartacists". Ebert supported the war efforts, and saw them as a defensive struggle. Ebert suffered the traumatic experience of losing two of his four sons in the war. Heinrich died in Macedonia, while Georg was killed in France. In June 1917, Ebert, along with several other socialists from other countries, led an initiative in Stockholm that was believed would end the war. The initiative, however, failed. In January 1918, when the workers in munition factories in Berlin went on strike, Ebert joined the strike leadership but worked hard to get the strikers back to work. He was pilloried on the left as a "traitor to the working class" and from the right as a "traitor to the Fatherland". Presidency When the Weimar Republic was created in February 1919, Ebert was chosen to be the new government's first President. He took the position, and appointed Scheidemann as the first Chancellor. One of Ebert's first tasks was to deal with the Treaty of Versailles. When the terms of the treaty became public, Ebert personally claimed it was both "unrealizable" and "unbearable". However, Ebert was well aware that Germany would not be in a position to fight back if he were to reject the treaty and have the Allies invade Germany. He asked Paul von Hindenburg if the army was capable of holding out if the Allies resumed hostilities. He promised to urge rejection of the treaty if there was even the slightest possibility of the army defending the country. Hindenburg, with some prodding from Wilhelm Groener, notified Ebert that the army was not capable of holding out against an attack from the West. Ebert thus advised the National Assembly to accept the treaty, which it did on July 9. Ebert and Groener signed the Ebert-Groener Pact which promised Ebert that his new Republic would have the full backing of the German Army in the case of an attack, as long as Ebert promised to leave the army up to the generals. The pact, however, was not stuck to by all means. Ebert may have kept his side of the deal, but during the Kapp Putsch of March 1920, the German army refused to fight due to the Freikorps, a group of ex-soldiers, also being amongst the revolters. They claimed that "army does not shoot upon army". As President, Ebert appointed centre-right figures such as Wilhelm Cuno and Hans Luther as chancellor and made rigorous use of his wide-ranging powers under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. Through 1924, he used the presidency's emergency powers 134 times. Death Ebert suffered from gallstones and frequent bouts of cholecystitis. Vicious attacks by Ebert's right-wing adversaries, including slander and ridicule, were often condoned or even supported by the judiciary when the president turned to the courts. The constant necessity to defend himself against those attacks also undermined his health. In December 1924, a court in Magdeburg fined a journalist who had called Ebert a "traitor to his country" for his role in the January 1918 strike, but it also said that, legally, Ebert had in fact committed treason. This court case prevented him from seeking medical help for a while, as he wanted to be available to give evidence. He became acutely ill in mid-February 1925 from what was believed to be influenza. His condition deteriorated over the following two weeks, and at that time he was thought to be suffering from another episode of gallbladder disease. He became acutely septic on the night of 23 February, and underwent an emergency appendectomy (which was performed by August Bier) in the early hours of the following day for what turned out to be appendicitis. He died of septic shock four days later, aged 54. He was buried in Heidelberg. Friedrich Ebert Foundation Ebert's policy of balancing the political factions during the Weimar Republic is seen as an important archetype in the SPD. Today, the SPD-associated Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Germany's largest and oldest party-affiliated foundation, which, among other things, promotes students of outstanding intellectual ability and personality, is named after Ebert. Category:Weimar Republic